With some of the lowest holiday prices in Europe, it’s no wonder we’re stampeding to Spain

Away from the high-rise costas, you’ll find parts of Spain and Portugal
unchanged from — or perhaps reverting to — the Middle Ages. Once deserted
villages are bustling as those who left to seek their fortunes in the city
return. In Jaen, steep fields are worked with horses. On the Ebro, fish
traps of 16th-century design are still in use, and in bars in the Bragança
region of northern Portugal, drinkers toss salt over their shoulders with
every other sip to confound the devil (with questionable success: across the
border, a record one in four Spaniards is unemployed).

The campo, while beautiful, isn’t always pretty, but for those seeking an
authentic experience, small, specialist tour operators are finally making
the countryside easier to explore. New trips are on sale to less familiar
areas such as Extremadura and the Sierra de Aracena. Two great rivers, the
Douro and the Guadalquivir, are opening up